The present disclosure relates to HTTP services in Web applications, and particularly relates to redirecting technology in HTTP services.
Under existing technologies, if a network user needs to visit a certain web page, the user enters an URL address corresponding to the web page on a client, and the HTTP server normally returns the web page requested by the user. However, some Internet websites use page redirecting technology to ensure that visitors are directed to relevant webpages even if target web pages intended by the visitors are under construction, going through adjustments, changing web page directory structures, transferring to the web pages at new URL addresses, or changing the web page extensions. Without a redirecting function, obsolete addresses associated with bookmarks of the network users or within search engine's databases would only return a “404” web page error message to the visitors, leading to a loss in browsing traffic. Furthermore, some websites may be associated with multiple domain names. Proper redirecting tools are needed to automatically redirect network users visiting these domain names to respective sites using redirection.
More specifically, if a standardized HTTP redirect function is used, an HTTP server first returns a redirection “3xx” command word as well as a redirected URL to a client. Upon receiving a returned redirection code (e.g., a redirection command “301”, “302”, “303” or “307”), the client re-submits a request to the HTTP server based on the redirected URL in order to obtain a final URL content. For instance, a redirection code “301” represents “Moved Permanently”, while a redirection code “302” represents “Moved Temporarily”, etc.
Using existing standardized HTTP redirect function, the client needs to first receive the redirected URL from the HTTP server, and then re-submit a new request to the HTTP server based on the redirected URL in order to obtain the final URL content. This not only wastes additional network bandwidth, but is also particularly unsuitable for circumstances which have a high network bandwidth requirement such as surfing the Internet using mobile phones. Moreover, communication fees of a network user are increased, especially if the provider and the user adopted pay-per-use mechanism. Furthermore, as the client needs to re-submit a URL request to the HTTP server, response rate is reduced, leading to poor user experience. This is especially true for the complicated networking environment of the Internet and mobile phones. In addition, if the client does not support redirection command, it will result in a re-sending failure of a URL request to the HTTP server. Therefore, solutions that provide fast and convenient URL request service to a client are needed.